Anybody ever put together a franchise manual?

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Lorne

Good morning everyone,

I recently met with a client who is interested in turning her drug testing company into a franchise/business opportunity. At present, she's putting together a rough outline of what she does, how she does it, and how someone buying into the franchise can replicate her results. It befalls me to write a franchise manual from her completed outline; while I'm comfortable with my ability to write clearly, this is the first time I've undertaken such a project.

Has anybody out there written a franchise manual? If so, any suggestions you might have would be deeply appreciated.

Thank you for reading,

Lorne
 

Good Word

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Lorne, if you are still with us:

Why would a franchise manual be any different than any other kind of manual?

What do you think the differences might be?
 

Lorne

Franchise Manuals

Hi GW, and thank you for the reply. I've been away from the site (and my office) for about two weeks, as my wife and I just brought home our first child. I figured there would be a hiccup in my writing schedule, but a newborn redefines 'hiccup.' I'm just now getting back to work on a part-time basis.

Looking back at this thread, I don't think my initial question was very clear. I was wondering if there was something akin to common practices of how business opportunity/franchise manuals were organized (typical section headings, whether to provide details in the manual proper or to refer to appendices, that sort of thing), and/or any topics they traditionally cover (in the event that my client forgets to develop an important subject which I hadn't considered).

I just don't want to leave anything out, and thought if that some of our members had experience at this type of thing, their suggestions might help avoid potential problems later. If it turns out that there aren't any common practices and franchise manuals are as unique as the companies creating them, I'll just draft the piece like other manuals I've written and be ready to make revisions if franchisees need more information.

Thanks,

Lorne
 

LloydBrown

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Lorne said:
Has anybody out there written a franchise manual? If so, any suggestions you might have would be deeply appreciated.

I started one, but I sold the business before I finished. It's something I'm fairly familiar with, and I'd love to actually complete the process.

Unfortunately, you won't easily find a template you can work with.

It's essentially a business plan, employee handbook, and operations manual all rolled into one. It needs to define the franchisee's obligations without infringing on his rights. For example, you can require that they have a POS system that does x, y, and z, but not that they have to have a particular brand of POS system.

Check out the Franchise Bible by Erwin J. Kreup; it's what I used to start my research. Just don't stop there. It's one of the most popular books out, but others have gotten better reviews. I can't think of any other titles off the top of my head.
 

Brianj

Franchise Manual.

Any luck finding resources for writing a franchise manual? I am also in the process of trying to write a franchise manual. You would think a template would exsist somewhere.
 

kellysmith

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Franchise Manuals

Hi Lorne, Great Idea for a business - "drug testing". We franchised our cartridgeworld cartridge refilling business worldwide with a great success. We used templates that were available online. Franchise Documents, Agreements, and Franchise Manuals can be expensive and very time consuming, so if you are looking for a low cost high end solution try to find some Franchise Documents online, we used a company called franchisedocumentonline for our documents, they offer a complete pack of documents for one price. There is also a great blog howtofranchise blogspot with some steps to follow if you want to know how to franchise your business. Also some great resources available from these sites.

Best of luck in too Franchise your business.

Mr. P Wheeler
 

FranLady

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How To Write A Franchise Operations Manual

There's a great franchise operations manual article on the Franchise Foundations website that shows how to write your own operations manual (with just some editing and planning assitance) and why this makes the most sense. Another great article talks about the franchise vs. license (franchising vs. licensing) choices and pitfalls that also involve an operations manual. Good Luck!
 

MrSmith

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Franchise Operations Manual - Great Tip

There's a great franchise operations manual article on the Franchise Foundations website that shows how to write your own operations manual (with just some editing and planning assitance) and why this makes the most sense. Another great article talks about the franchise vs. license (franchising vs. licensing) choices and pitfalls that also involve an operations manual. Good Luck!

Thanks FranLady for the link to the Franchise Foundations article. Our company hunted around online and we bought a couple of the Operations Manual templates. They were pretty useless to be honest. Our attorney also pointed out that Mr. Franchise was right: they had chapters about topics that create legal risk if we used them in our franchise operation.

We ended up using Franchise Foundations to help us with our operations manuals. They developed a Table of Contents specific to our business, then gave us samples of similar franchise operations manuals, so we had a starting point. After we wrote our draft of each chapter, they edited it. The editing process was invaluable. The questions they asked and their comments as they reviewed each chapter made us "rethink" the metrics of our business model. It evolved to a new level as a result.

The final product was something we are proud to present to our franchise owners. We would never be at this point relying on operations manual templates. As another CEO pointed out, the bottom line is you have to write the operations manual yourself. Trying to cut corners won't work, believe me.

- Paul
 

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We appear to be attracting SPAM with this subject. Sink, putrid thread. Sink.
 
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